Dreams
by The Light-Hearted Fool
Summary: Ocarina of Time - Maybe it would be soon. Summer was coming. It would be better in the summer.


**Title:** Dreams

**Notes:** So… I was thinking about the thing with Ruto, that some people seem to have, and I saw a quote about how she should have just handed over the Zora Sapphire without forcing Link into a marriage. And this happened.

Really, guys. She was a little girl, who was just saved by someone who must have been the most awesome, interesting person she'd ever met, who asked for her stone. The stone that she was taught only to give to the man who would be her husband, mind you.

What was she supposed to think?

**Warnings:** Unreliable 3rd Person Limited perspective; Some people don't understand that the narrator of the story can be inaccurate, yet not change the accuracy nor the intellect of the writer, neither.

Once upon a Time, there was a Princess. She was the most beautiful princess in all the rivers and seas, with skin like lapis lazuli. Her father was a great barnacle of a king, and he wished to confine the princess to stagnant waters, for he believed their safety was important, even though stagnant waters choked life. Worse than that, they were dull, and the Princess wanted the freedom of wild currents and open waters.

So, the Princess decided to sneak away from her father and his stagnant ponds. However, living water was not as safe as it once was, and the Princess found herself swallowed by a twisted beast. That creature was not the gentle giant beast she thought she knew, but a mindless creature of hunger, riddled with even more dangerous parasites.

Worst of all, in all the chaos, the Princess lost her mother's stone. It was her most precious possession: the sacred stone of her people, the royal emblem, her dowry and engagement stone, and her mother's last gift. She couldn't bear to leave without it. She might as well never go home, without it! Everyone would have hated her for losing it.

For days, the Princess searched in the dank maze for her treasure. But, the beast's cavernous gut twisted around, confounding her every attempt. In desperation (and the Princess was rarely ever desperate, ever, for she was as bold as a hurricane), she sent out a note in a bottle, throwing it as far outside of the beast's mouth as she could.

She didn't know if it would even make it to anyone who would help—who wouldn't despise her for losing her mother's stone, but it would have to do. The Princess refused to leave the belly of the beast, until her stone was safe.

It wasn't long after, though, that a young man arrived. He was a Hylian, and he was clad in the brightest green the Princess had ever seen. Yet, he didn't appear to be a hero to the Princess, not at first. He wished only to drag her away, without rescuing her stone, after all. The Princess had to test him, just to make sure.

Like a true gentleman, he carried her through the cavernous maze. If he left her behind, a moment or two, she was willing to forgive and give him another chance. He was brave and strong, too. He dispatched the parasites with the same ease as a fish swam downstream.

Then, after the Hero vanquished a monstrously large octorock, they found her mother's stone, sitting prettily on a strange, pink platform. With the Hero's help, the Princess reached the platform and retrieved the stone, completely unharmed. With a sudden shake, though, the platform shot upwards. In moments, the Princess found herself tossed about, captured, and alone with a strange creature, the likes of which she had never seen, before.

The strange beast, the hulking form of a mutant anemone, robbed her of her stone, and kept her captive. Surely, it was to blame for the transformation of the gentle guardian into a mindless beast of hunger. It kept company with the smaller parasites, and dug its tendrils into the belly of the once-guardian.

Though she struggled and tried to fight it – she yelled and kicked and thrashed, as well – the Princess could not contend with it. Defeated, upset, and quickly growing bitter, she sat as a sullen captive. She hated that she couldn't fight off her captor. She hated every second of her imprisonment, and, in her anger, she doubted her hero.

If he was such a hero, where was he?

It wasn't long after the Princess asked herself that, that the Hylian youth appeared. Perhaps, summoned up by her very thoughts. He brandished a gleaming sword and a jeweled boomerang, with which he slew the dozens of bari clinging to the monster.

The Princess was amazed at such a feat. She had never seen anyone so agile, to dodge so many parasites with such ease! Neither had she known anyone to be so fearless. He dispatched the monster even more efficiently, though it spun around the room wildly. It never stood a chance. The Hylian _was_ a great hero, after all.

After the monster's demise, they were able to retrieve her mother's stone (for real), and they were finally free from the creature's belly. Not only that, but the gentle giant was back to normal! He was no longer the strange beast infected with hunger and terrible parasites.

The Princess found herself smitten. She told the hero as much, offering him a reward for his good services, as princesses are supposed to do. Without hesitation (something that still makes the Princess flush and giggle), the Hero asked for her stone – her dowry, her hand in marriage. With an equal lack of hesitation (her head swimming in new delights and wonderment), she gave it.

What else could she have done, swept up into the lovely, swift current as she was? Not a person would have done differently, in her position.

The Hero took her promise, and her dowry, and told her he had to leave. He had a quest to finish, which would take him far from the Zora's Domain. The Princess was disappointed, but understood. She knew her Hero to be true to her and her promise. She was confident that he would return to her, when his questing was over.

And one day, he _would_ return, full of the glories and honors of his good work. He would fix everything wrong in the realm, too, and bring light to Hyrule, again. Then, in Zora's Fountain, they would finally be wed.

She would have to tell the King first, though…

"You seem troubled, Ruto."

Ruto pulled herself away from her daydreams and her vigil atop the waterfall, at her father's statement. He was watching her with concern, silly, endearing little barnacle of a man that he was. Her stomach fluttered, as if filled with frantic loaches. She thought of telling her father, for a moment, but opted against it. She would wait for Link to return, first.

"I'm just a little cold," she replied, which wasn't a lie. It _was_ unseasonably cold.

"Yes," King Zora agreed, "It is colder than it should be, lately. The spring usually arrives faster than this. Undoubtedly, the summer will be better."

Ruto nodded, only half listening, and returned to her vigil. Soon, Link would return; her lovable, heroic, wayward fiancée. He would come home, his questing over (or, just beginning, if that wicked king was as great a threat as rumors said). No matter. One day, they would be wed and happy, and the sun would shine bright and warm, again.

Maybe it would be soon. Summer was coming. It would be better in the summer.


End file.
